The Stark Legacy
by StrangeKid1998
Summary: Stacy is a runaway orphan from a family who lived to party and eventually burned down their own house because they took "turn down for what" to heart. Stacy is an incredibly smart girl who had graduated high school and college by age fifteen and passion is to work with technology with Tony Stark as her role model. Stacy is called in for an interview and is shocked when she walks in
1. Prologue

I was walking out of a press conference, paparazzi everywhere. But being a multi-billionaire, you eventually get used to it. The press conference wasn't on an exactly joyful subject: what I thought about the other members of the Avengers and my opinion on "busting bad guys." I limited myself on what I said about my "co-workers" due to the reactions I might get. As I shoved my way out of the crowd, people tried to get my attention and ask me questions.

"Please no questions!" I had yelled before I started moving towards the door—waste of air.

"Mr. Stark! Tony! Tony!" Reporters yelled at me from all sides. Then

"Mr. Stark! You have no children, what do you plan to do with Stark Industries? Are you going to give it to a distant family member or hand it off to a good friend of yours?" A reporter asked me, I didn't respond, but it hit me hard. I finally reached my car and plopped down on the seat, deep in thought.

That reporter had a point, what would I do when I got old and gray? Give it to a loyal costumer? No. Give it to some far off distant cousin? Not likely. I don't have a kid and don't plan to have a toddler running around the house… The next best thing would have to be adoption.


	2. Chapter 1: Apparently Creativity

I sat in the New York Orphanage lobby, simmering. My whole life had been a living hell, now it was getting worse. From having a family that had kids at the age of sixteen and drinking every night like it was their life line then to a place where it was all _"happy, happy, joy, joy"_ twenty-four-seven.

 _Kill me now._ I thought, sinking deeper into my seat. I scowled as I thought about the suitcase of all my belongings that I wanted and what I could salvage from the fire.

"Stacy? Please come into my office." Mrs. Brown said to me, poking her head out her door. She was a heavy set African American woman who, by a little snooping, likes her Honeybuns and Twinkies.

 _Here we go again._ I rolled my eyes as I got up from the chair.

I walked into the office filled with little, gay looking butterflies and illustrated children that smiled in the creepiest way and seemed to watch where ever you go. I plopped down in a seat in front of her desk and scowled unhappily at her. This wasn't the first time we've had this talk.

"Stacy, how many times do we have go over this until it finally gets into that head of yours that this is _not_ okay?" She asked, looking at me over her glasses.

"'Till you say that creativity is legal here." I mumbled.

"Creativity _is_ legal here." She groaned.

"Not my type of creativity, apparently." I said glaring at her, making her stiffen.

"Well, your definition of creativity is… Dangerous to the other children here." She sighed.

"From my observations, the others actually like it." I said, a sly grin tugging at my lips as I fingered the worn wood of the arm rest.

"They may like it until someone gets hurt!" She yelled, slamming her hands down on the wooden desk that stood in between us.

"My experiments and inventions haven't hurt me or anybody else before."

"That doesn't mean they won't in the future." She said rubbing her temples.

"Why don't you trust me?"

"It's not that I don't trust _you_ , I just don't trust the things you make. Stacy, they're machines that cannot think for themselves and can easily malfunction."

"You don't know that. Since when do you have any experience with robotics and technology? You can barely work that computer." I nodded to the desktop computer behind her. She's asked me to help her with it several times before and it was mostly with the incredibly simple stuff.

"I'll have you know that I worked in a garage before I took on this job." She defended. I looked at her doubtfully; the stuff that I was playing with was not ignitions and car batteries. That wasn't technology—that was travelling. She eventually got uncomfortable from my stare and the heavy silence in the room. I'd beaten her again.

"Are you done?" I asked impatiently, getting tired of the same old lecture that was given to me almost every week.

"Yes, I think I'm done." She said with her eyes closed, fingers still on her temples.

Back upstairs, I focused on hotwiring an old computer to have an artificial intelligence. I glanced up to a cover of Time magazine with Tony Stark on the cover. It had him with the camera spilt down the page of him in the Iron Man suit, half on and half off.

"If only, if only…" I sighed to myself.


	3. Chapter 2: Unscheduled and Unprepared

It was less than two days until I was called back down to Mrs. Brown's office again. I was puzzled with why she wanted me in her office again, I hadn't made anything explode recently or work on some kind of robot decided to occasionally go rouge and spit burnt waffles out everywhere just to piss her off. So as I trumped down the stairs with my mood decreasing with each step, then Scooter decided to accompany me.

"What happened this time Stacy?" He asked, looking up at me with his bright blue eyes. Scooter was a small, seven year-old Blondie with freckles all over his cheeks and a bit of a trouble maker himself.

"Absolutely nothing. I didn't make an explosion go off on the roof; I haven't worked much on my international radio adapter or anything else. I've barely touched _anything._ " I threw my hands in the air with frustration.

"Weird, I wonder why she wants you." Scooter said, scratching his head.

"Me too… Maybe she's PMSing or something." I said, making him giggle as he walked with me until we got to her office door.

"Well, looks like I can't go in with you. You know how she is when someone comes in without her specific invitation." He said with a fist bump. "Best of luck." He smiled and strolled off down the hall way, his hands in his pockets, whistling a little tune of his own creation.

I walked into her office where she sat looking impatient and antsy. "Where have you been?" She asked.

"Upstairs bored out of my mind, just what you want," I huffed. "What did I do? I didn't play with anything or freak out Ms. Pinkle."

"Well, I didn't call you down because you did anything wrong. I had an unscheduled couple come in about twenty minutes ago. I don't think he's very patient with meetings. He's the type that states specifically what he wants with fast words and sarcasm. So brush up as fast as you can so we don't have to keep him waiting" Mrs. Brown said as she fanned herself with a piece of paper.

I sighed, rolled my eyes and headed for the guest bathrooms on the main floor. I fixed my hair with my fingers and a little water, which didn't take me but five minutes. I'd done this almost too many times in the high school and the science buildings on Caltech's campus before a major presentation in the lecture halls. After well over one hundred interviews throughout my whole career at this orphanage, I either said no or was turned down. After doing this so many times, I had a routine. I made my way back to the interview room, took a deep breath, and opened the doors.

"My name is Stacy and I am fifteen, already graduated from high school and college on a full-ride scholarship for mechanical sciences from Caltech. I like to fiddle around with old computers, circuit boards, and sometimes fireworks." I started, as I walked around the long wooden table without even looking at the couple sitting at the opposite end. "My original family was a bunch of sluts that eventually burned down the house when they decided to have an out of control party one night. I was thinking about running away the night after that party, but with no home, I just decided that night was better." I turned around to see what the couple looked like and my breath caught in my throat. It was _Tony Stark_ —my role model, the multi-billionaire, the owner of Stark Industries, the guy that "privatized world peace", the guy behind the Iron Man helmet, one of the famed Avengers and his well-known, with his fiery-haired company partner Pepper Potts. He was leaning back in one of the large office chairs that were specifically for potential-parent interviews, a hand next to his mouth as he looked at me with an intrigued expression.

I swallowed nervously and felt my ears begin to burn.

"Mr.-Mr. Stark…" I said gasped. If there was one time that I regretted doing my routine, it was now. The one guy that I wanted to meet for the last nine years of my life wanted to adopt me and I went off and gave a bad impression. My eyes were locked on his, it was like the stare down of the century, I was so nervous I was about to throw up and go to cry in a corner and he just sat there with a smirk on his face which pinned me against the wall.

"Tell me again, Stacy, where did you graduate?" He asked, breaking the intense staring contest by looking down and started fiddling with a pen on the table then glanced up at me.

"Caltech, on a scholarship," I said, glancing down at my feet. "I skipped second, fourth, sixth, seventh, ninth and tenth grades. I graduated from college last year."

"Impressive." He commented as he played with the pen. "So you're into mechanical sciences, do you have any experience with that? I know you like to shoot fireworks off of the orphanage's roof, I've seen your light show before, but how… _Advanced_ is your work?"

"Right now, I'm trying to program an artificial intelligence in a computer and have succeeded in making a fire wall hacker out of a toaster. I'm inspired by your technological successes."

"So you've only experimented with small, somewhat primitive stuff?"

"Yes, it's all I could really get a hold of. Sometimes I have to fix the refrigerator or the trunk freezer, but the smaller appliances that don't work anymore are generously " _donated_ " to me."

"Hm, let me think this over with Pepper. Thank you, it was nice meeting you." He said with a quick smile as he pressed his fingertips together while he rocked back and forth in the chair. That was my cue to leave the room.

"It was a pleasure." I bowed slightly and stiffly walked out.

After the initial interview, the interviewee has to leave the room in order for the parents to discuss their decision "as to not to sway their opinion" as Mrs. Brown says. So I sat outside the room in the lobby, knees bouncing with anticipation and nervousness.

As Scooter was passing the lobby, he saw me.

"So how'd it go?" He asked, plopping down in the seat next to me.

"I started my routine before I even saw the people in there. I've done this so many times that I didn't really care if they said yes or no, but now… The guy in there is Tony Stark! My idol! If there was anybody that I would want to adopt me, it'd be him." I exclaimed.

"Wow, a multi-billionaire… _Here?_ _At this dump?_ He must be stooping down pretty far on the social ladder for you." Scooter said with a raised eyebrow.

"I know. But I don't know how he took my first impression; his face wore the same expression almost the whole entire time! A smirking poker face! Then he pinned me to the wall with an unblinking stare. It was like he was staring into my soul."

"Well, if he does decide to adopt you, you'll be missed. You're the oldest one here, the only runaway genius who has graduated from college. If you go, it'd be like tearing a big hole in the wall of this place, everybody would be bored out of their minds. I'll miss you, Stacy." He said solemnly, looking up at me with his sky blue eyes.

"I know Scooter, I'll miss you too. Even if I do, I'll try to remember to send you an autographed picture of the Avengers. Tony _is_ Iron Man you know." I said, and hugged his head. Scooter was basically the little brother that I actually cared about here, he never really disrespected me or fought with me, he was just the cool kind of kid who wasn't a nuisance and was easy to talk to.

"Really? You'd do that for me?" He asked, eyes full of sincere love.

"Yeah, whenever I get bored, I'd fly down here in _my_ Iron Man suit from Avengers Tower and visit with you all." I smiled.

"Wow, now you won't have to just sit there and watch him come and go. You could actually watch him get _in_ it and all!" Scooter exclaimed.

"True, but I don't even know if he'll actually want to adopt me." I sighed. "I didn't leave a good impression." I put my head in my hands. The _one_ time I actually cared about finding a new home and I went and _blew it._ Nice job Stacy, nice job.

"Well, if you don't, then you can at least say that you've met Tony Stark."

"But that isn't really a very special title, I mean, that could be taken two _totally_ different ways. Some people could be like 'Oh my gosh! You actually got to meet Tony Stark?' and be like a crazed fan girl or 'You met him? Cool, but why didn't he adopt you? Do you have some type of mental problem?'"

"Oh, I guess I didn't see that side…" Scooter looked away; he had an almost sad expression on his face.

"Stacy, Mr. Stark has made his decision. He wants to tell you himself." Mrs. Brown poked her head out of the interview room's double doors, her expression was almost unreadable.

"Good luck!" Scooter said as I got up from my seat. I had a bad case of the butterflies. I walked through the double doors and stood a couple feet to his left in front of the table.

"Stacy, I believe that you are a very smart and gifted child. You even exceeded my graduating record; you beat me by about seven years. I have never heard of _anyone_ graduating that early." He had a sincere expression on his face, which made me feel a whole lot better than what I had earlier. "I was looking for a child who was very bright and intelligent, above the average standards of school education in science or math. You are that special child. I have decided to adopt you. Is that alright in your books?"

My breath caught in my throat, my eyes started to water, a smile grew across my face. I couldn't believe this was happening to me. I started to nod, blushing because of the tears of joy streaming down my face.

"Hm?" He asked, a playful smile coming across his.

"Yes," I sniffled. "Yes!" I wailed.

"Good," He grinned. "Welcome to the Stark family!" He exclaimed and jumped out of the chair with a huge smile and arms spread wide. tt d Stark."ieve we havent from that old computend was floored with white carpet.


	4. Chapter 3: Vision

After saying tearful goodbyes to the other children at the orphanage, we made our way out to Tony's incredibly expensive car that put all of the other cars in the lot to shame.

"A 1992 Acura NSX? You turned an NSX into _this?"_ I exclaimed, he'd modified the crap out of it and it was _beautiful_. This NSX was over twenty years old and this specific model wasn't the best looking one that ever existed from this line of cars, but Tony's handiwork transformed a lump of coal into a dazzling diamond. It was a sleek, roofless sports car with tan leather interior and a beautiful deep red paint job. It'd be hard to recognize the model with an untrained eye, it looked almost _nothing_ like the original model, it's too pretty to be a regular '92 NSX. " _A_ _custom_ _four_ - _seater_ — wow, she cleans up nice! I assume you did the work yourself."

"I didn't know you were into cars."

"If you play with technology, you have to at least know _something_ about cars. Especially the fast and expensive ones." I smiled as he opened the driver's side door.

"I like the way you think." He winked.

"Stacy, would you like to ride up front?" Pepper asked with a hand on the passenger door.

"I-I… You can…" I stuttered. "You don't have to."

"No, I insist." She smiled sweetly and pulled the seat forward so she could get into the back, I blushed at her kindness. My fingers tingled when I touched the open door of the car and nearly jumped out of my pants when it roared to life, making Tony laugh. I sat in the deep seat and could barely breathe when I put on the seat belt. These cars could easily top 120 on the highway, so it wouldn't be smart to be unbuckled in the car even in the city, especially with the king of G-forces driving. We zoomed through the streets of New York surprisingly without much traffic. I was pinned into the seat every time we turned a corner or accelerated from a stop light, some of the best fun I'd ever had driving in a car.

"So, is the rest of the team in town or are they off doing their own thing?" I asked as we sat at a stop light.

"Well, Steve stays local, Nat… I don't know where _she_ lives, Bruce has his own little quiet, cozy place, Clint lives in Upstate, and Thor is obviously in Asgard." Tony said and looked at me through his light brown sunglasses. " _We_ live up _there_." He nodded to the towering building in front of us, but it was no ordinary tower. That was _Avengers Tower_ —the official headquarters of Earth's Mightiest Heroes.

"No—" I said in disbelief. I was going to live in one of the most iconic buildings in New York?

"Yes, it's the only place left, really, my other place back in California is kinda sitting at the bottom of the ocean… We already had a pent house up there, so that's where we're gonna be."

"Wow…" I breathed and looked up at it. I'd spent countless nights on the roof of the orphanage watching the tower and gasping whenever Tony had flown over me and up to the landing pad, feeling like I was in a dream. I never imagined that I'd ever be able to go into that magnificent building, but now I was going to _live_ in it.

The light changed and we zoomed to the tower. After parking the car in his showroom, we took an elevator up to the private floors. It was an awkward ride up, but it thankfully didn't last very long. The elevator dinged when we reached the pent house. I was finally _home_. As soon as the doors slid open, I practically skipped into the large room of black granite floors, expensive furnishings, with a kitchen in one corner, a bar next to it, and nothing but windows on the far side of the room that overlooked the city with a step down to a crescent of couches and a coffee table in the center, all sitting in front of it. This was literally almost everyone's dream… And I was living it.

"This place is _amazing_." I smiled as I set down my suitcase and gazed around. This place was beautiful.

"I thought you'd like it." Tony grinned as he stepped up next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulder. I stiffened. This was something that I hadn't felt in a very long time. I hadn't felt true affection in years, if ever. I didn't know if I even knew what real affection felt like. Then I relaxed when I really realized that someone actually _cared_ about me. It felt good. I was safe. I was warm. I was _loved._

"Tony," A smooth male voice with a British accent said, sounding surprised. "You're back. I thought you would be longer." We both turned around and looked where the voice had come from, his arm still around me.

"Vision," He replied with a happy tone. "This is Stacy, my new daughter."

I didn't know who this Vision guy was. He wasn't an Avenger was he? I'd never seen him before, but his voice seemed familiar. The man standing in front of us had a bright red face that looked like it was flawlessly pieced together with carbon fiber and—something else… An extremely pliable alloy? He didn't seem human but did at the same time… Green covered the top and back of his head and in connected pieces on his neck, and in the middle of his forehead was a small, glowing, yellow stone. He had green eyes that looked like robotic optics only in human eyes. He wore a green body suit that stopped in the middle of his forearms and mid-calf and long, billowing yellow cape to top it all off. He looked as curious and innocent as a child but had an air of wisdom around him.

"Hello," He smiled with a sideways nod. "I'm Vision. I currently live here with Tony and Pepper and now you."

"Hi…" I said softly. He was cute—not a crush cute, but innocent cute, kind of like a puppy. "Uh—" I cleared my throat. "What exactly are you?"

"I'm an android—I believe most would recognize me best because of who I sound like, do you know JARVIS?" He asked. Then my eyes got wide. I _knew_ that voice from somewhere!

"No way!" I gaped. "You're a mix of human and JARVIS?" JARVIS was the famed computer program that was basically in everything that Tony had ever invented. He was the program that inspired me to make my own. I recognized his voice from a hack that literally took a week for me to barely breach, I'd tried to get through the tower's Wi-Fi and into a simple data file once but was politely block by the computer's smooth voice… Not exactly my most successful moment, but it was something to be proud of, I was able to make a signal that was over a quarter mile in diameter and still had the strength to try to connect to the system out of an old TV dish, a rigged radio, a pair of bunny ears, and almost all of the electricity in the entire orphanage. Luckily, I'd done it at night without anybody knowing, but Mrs. Brown figured it out from that month's energy bill.

"I guess you could say that, but there's more to it. Yes, I do have human properties, but I also am made of a very special metal that can correspond with flesh very well—"

"The only metal that can really do that to the extent of _you_ would probably be vibranium, right?" I asked as I studied the floor in thought. "There's really no other metal or alloy that is at least that flexible, durable, compatible, and light enough to successfully be mixed with a living organism and for it to survive. Since you are both human and mechanical, you'd need the flexibility and durability and weightlessness of it to simply move and the compatibility for everything else your body needs to function."

"Y-yes…" I apparently surprised and possibly offended him from the look on his face.

"B-but please don't take anything I said as an offense, I was just thinking out loud." I put out my hands and apologized when I quickly saw how I'd let my big mouth dig me into something that could be a very sensitive subject.

"No, no, you didn't offend me," He looked at me in awe. "I just didn't expect for you to know all of that. Most people don't even know what vibranium is."

"Well…" I blushed as my ears started to burn. "I-I guess I'm not like most people…" I then shrugged with an uneasy smile.

"Apparently not." Vision smiled. "I have a feeling we will get along very well."

"Me too." I nodded with a small smile.

"Vision, would you like to show Stacy to her new room?" Tony asked, then gave him a smiling wink.

 _My own room?_ I thought with wide eyes. The last time I had a room to myself was when I was still at home and even then it was a pretty crappy room. It was small and cramped and served as the sex room when my parents had their drug and booze powered parties. So I'd sit outside in a tree and try to ignore the thought that there were two strangers getting it on in my bed and then having to sleep in it until I got it washed, which would sometimes be over a week afterwards if I was lucky. At the orphanage, I had to share a room with about three other girls, so I really hadn't much privacy to do my own thing in a long time. I excitedly grabbed my suitcase and nearly bounced my way up next to the red android with an ecstatic grin.

"It would be my pleasure." He smiled warmly as he stepped towards a hall opposite of the kitchen and bar. "If you don't mind my asking, how did Tony come to choose you, or rather, how did you end up in the orphanage?"

"Well, long story short, my parents took _"Turn Down for What"_ a little too close to heart. They were party animals and eventually ended up burning down the house, I'd planned to runaway the night after that party, but when that happened I basically said to myself: _Eh, might as well go now. I've got nothing else to lose."_ I shrugged. "My bags and whatever I wanted to take was already packed and hidden out in the backyard. I ended up in the orphanage when I realized that I ate my rations a little too quickly and that the Salvation Army figured out that I was a minor living on her own. The rest is history." I finished.

"So Tony chose you because…?"

"Because I've already graduated high school and college with a full ride scholarship." I said simply.

"You have already graduated from _both?"_ He asked in astonishment.

"Yup, I think the other factor of that was that I got my master's degree in mechanical sciences. No need to pay for school, even though that wouldn't be any problem for his budget, but I guess the other thing with that is keeping up with all the paperwork and so on."

"Impressive, and, knowing you adoptive father, logical." Vision shrugged as we followed the soft turn in the hallway.

"Hey, I find logic in it too." I said then I froze dead in my tracks and gaped when we came to the end of the hall.

I stood in the doorway of a large room with an astounding view of the city through the wall of windows, a neatly made _queen_ sized bed, bigger than any bed I'd ever owned with nightstands on either side, a door in the wall to the left that led to what looked like my very own bathroom, there were several bean bags in a corner, and a desk and chair on the right wall with a cup full of sharpened pencils, a stack of sketching paper, and a lamp for what I assumed was blue print making. I had my _own_ room with more fixings that I could only have dreamt of if I'd moved in here and that dream had come true. This was a living paradise. Something that was the exact opposite of what I'd grown up in—a small, dirty, run down house that smelled of cigarettes, weed, and sweat with a small attic space for me to call a "room" and now I was in a pent house with a bedroom that was literally the same size as the living room in my old house.

"Are you impressed?" Vision asked with a small chuckle as he leaned towards me with a face of slight amusement and concern.

"This is… This is my room?" I gasped with disbelief, I still couldn't get my head around the fact I had my own private living space.

"Yes it is." He said sweetly; I began to sniff as tears burned my eyes. "Oh—uh—" Vision said in a shocked tone as happy tears ran down my face. "I-it's alright…" He cautiously wrapped his arms around my shoulders, uncertain of what to do. I turned and wrapped my arms around his chest and chuckled at his uncomfortableness, he stiffened, then, with a sigh, embraced me as I buried my face into him. "I-I guess I never realized how well we have it here… Until you arrived."

"Well," I sniffed and pressed my ear to his chest, smiling when I heard a heartbeat. This android had a heart and it was bigger than he realized. "The world isn't a pretty place and that's a pretty harsh fact you have to learn to deal with when you're living in it." I sighed. "People take so many things for granted and they don't realize how well off they are. I may seem to be a little over-dramatic over this, but you don't know how much it means to me to finally have a place to exclusively call my own." I looked up at him with teary eyes and a weak smile.

"No, I don't. I have never lived anywhere outside of this building in my short life, but I do know that I am privileged to be where I am." He said as he gently lifted my chin and wiped a tear from my cheek. I was happy that he understood how blessed he was to be living with one of the richest and smartest men in the world. "Now, let's get you settled in."


	5. Chapter 4: Surprise!

After getting what few belongings I had into the dressers, Vision and I decided to take a small tour of Avengers Tower, agreeing to go from bottom-to-top. I excitedly explored the lobby and all of its exhibits of each individual of the Avengers team, bouncing from one to the other, babbling on and on about the physics behind Captain America's vibranium shield, theorizing how Thor was able to fly with his hammer, gaping at the scientific breakthroughs of Dr. Banner and my new father and piecing things together in my head that didn't make sense until I read the brief displays, working up questions to eventually ask the both of them, all the while Vision following me with an impressed look on his face at my nerding out and amusement in my enthusiasm. We moved on to the next several floors, which were little more than just offices that over looked the giant, holographic, Avengers insignia that floated above an elegant fountain—nothing too impressive about any of those—but my energy came back when we hit the innovation section of the building. Vision toured me through the more biological-based labs, my face pressed against the walls of glass that protected onlookers from anything that may happen within, as I quickly studied over the incredibly advanced mechanisms and machines and tried to guess their purposes, getting most of them right, aside from the classified oddball and unique that were completely unknown to the outside world of biology and medicine. Then we hit the mechanical labs… I practically jumped from one thing to another, opening up the hologram control panels and carefully exploring their uses and databases, gaping at Tony's in-progress inventions but being warned by Vision to look, not touch. I was like a kid in a candy shop.

"This is the simulation room," He explained as we entered a control room with a glass observation window to an even more expansive room. "This is where we train ranging from target and agility practices to battle scenarios." I gazed out the window and into the room; the dark gray and green gridded floor and walls created an illusion that seemed to make it go on forever.

"Wow…"

"On to the next thing," Vision said with a hint of urgency. "I believe you'll like this the most out of everything so far."

I didn't argue and taking the hint that this next thing was supposed to be the most anticipated part of my tour, I guessed what it was and got it right—it was _the_ _armory_. This was the place where all of the iron man suits were stored along with whatever other weapons were used by the others on a regular basis. I practically ran around the floor, looking for the magical door that opened up into the most spectacular place of them all. Door to door, bursting through the ones that were open and bumping into the ones that weren't. After a lap or two around that floor, Vision ended up grabbing me by the waist, draping me over his arm, and carried me over to a door that I tried at least three times.

"But that one's locked." I said, looking up at him.

"I know, but it helps when you have a key." He said as he pulled out a metal card and waved it in front of a scanning pad beside the door, which made a beeping sound, a little light flash green, and the mechanical sound of a lock flipping open. As the door slid open, my eyes grew twice their size as the huge array of all forty-five suits of every size, shape, and type suddenly appeared in front of me. I squirmed out of Vision's grip and started running around and literally drooling over every single one.

"They're spectacular!" I squealed then almost dropped when I turned around and saw it. _Mark 44._ _The Hulkbuster._ This was the suit that Tony had worn to fight the Green Man in Africa after the whole Ultron fiasco. Even though this suit wasn't exactly one to be seen in public, it made its way onto the internet through the raw footage, it wasn't the best quality, and, me being who I am, I had to find out more about this monster of a suit. So I hacked into national security to get a better look, only in long enough to see what I wanted to see. Their video quality was better, which was a given, and there was more of it. The battle was raw and each took a beating—the Hulk had a few seconds of rapid fire punches to the face and Tony was rightfully thrown across the square once he was able to find an opening. This suit was the only thing that could take the Hulk head-on and give him an actual challenge.

"It was quite a battle." Vision said as he stepped up behind me as I continued to gape at the giant standing in front of me.

"It sure was! I can't believe Bruce didn't wake up with a shattered jaw." I exclaimed. He took a breath to start talking, I assumed to ask how I knew about it. "It was all over the internet and I hacked into the US and South African national security banks to see the actual footage, if that answers your question." I said without turning around to look at him.

"Yes…"

"I figured I'd find you here," Tony's voice then said over a speaker in the room. "And nice job with that hack."

"Where else would I be?" I asked as walked up to one of its monstrous hands and compared one of its four fingers to my hand.

"True." He said over the speaker. "You need to come back up now, it's time for dinner and I'd like to enjoy our _first_ meal together, plus I have a surprise for you."

"B-but…" I whined.

"Stacy, you live here now. You can come back down _whenever_ you want." He sighed.

 _"_ _Is that her?"_ A distant voice said quietly in the background of the microphone.

 _"_ _Shh!"_ He hissed then cleared his throat. "C-can you hurry?" His voice now had an impatient edge to it. "Food's gonna get cold."

With a somewhat heavy heart, I turned away from the giant suit and walked out of the armory. But who was that other person on the microphone? It wasn't Pepper, who was the only person up there with him when we left and Vision was with me… _Who was that?_ And what was this surprise? We took the speedy elevator back up to the pent house, the thought of who that mysterious person might be tumbling around in my head as the suspense continued to build until it dinged and the double doors slid open.

"Oh, wait!" Vision said and clapped a hand over my eyes and behind my head.

"Wha—?" I asked in confusion.

"Just walk with me." He said warmly. So I blindly followed him into the room and towards what I thought were the windows which were clarified when he said "Okay, step down." I carefully did and then he gently pushed me backwards, making me sink into a plush couch.

"Okay, now you can open your eyes." Tony said when Vision took his hands off of my face.

 _"_ _Surprise!"_ Several voices exclaimed, making me nearly jump out of my skin. I looked around and blinked several times, trying to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I was sitting in the middle of the entire team of Avengers. _The_ Avengers.

I looked to either side of me and I saw Thor sitting on my right with a huge grin in a brown leather jacket and jeans and Captain America was on my left in a dark button down with brown pants. I looked around the circle and Dr. Banner was next to Cap in a purple button down and then Black Widow next to him in a cute white top and a short leather jacket, my head whipped around to the other side—Hawkeye, wearing a black leather jacket and a plain white tee, was next to the God of Thunder who was wearing a deep red v-neck as Vision sat down next to him, all wrapping around to Tony and Pepper sitting across from me with a coffee table separating us, both smiling from ear to ear. I had to look around at everybody at least two more times until I could tell myself that I _wasn't_ dreaming.

"So… What do you think?" Tony asked as he gestured to everybody around me. I tried to talk but I couldn't. This was almost too much.

"I…I…" I stuttered. "Wow…"

"Well, Stacy, I am pleased to congratulate you on finding a new family." Thor said in his deep and noble voice.

"Th-thanks." I blushed.

"So, I hear you're quite the genius." Cap said and leaned back and put an arm on the back of couch, turning towards me in interest.

"I-I guess you could say that…" I shrugged. "I haven't really done much compared to Tony. I've hacked into a few things, made a security system out of an alarm clock and a few laser pointers for the orphanage… It was one of the only few inventions that Ms. Brown actually liked. It caught a burglar once." I looked down and played with a strand of hair.

"You make things out of household appliances?" He guessed.

"Yeah, I guess so. It was all I really had to work with—old appliances and junk like that. You'd be surprised on how many toasters and microwaves we go through."

"What else have you done?" Doc asked gently.

"Well, I don't know if he already told you," I nodded towards Tony. "But I've already graduated both high school and college."

 _"_ _Really?_ How old are you?" Hawkeye asked.

"Fifteen." I looked back down at lap as I continued to finger my hair.

"Wow…" He whistled. _"Both?"_

I nodded.

"What kind of background do you come from?" Cap asked.

"Not a very good one…" I said softly. Immediately recognizing that it could've been a sensitive subject he cleared his throat and shifted in his seat. "But it's nothing I'm too upset about." I perked up a little and reached for a can of soda from an ice bucket. "Long story short, my parents were party animals to the point of literally burning down the house and, after a series of things, I ended up in the orphanage a few blocks from here."

"Well, I don't think that you necessarily get a break from the parties, but hopefully they're better than what you're used to." Black widow said with a small smile.

"It is true, your new father likes to celebrate and have friendly gatherings all the time." Thor said as he lifted up a bottle of beer towards Tony. "But I believe that they do not go to the extent of your original parents."

"Oh god no!" He exclaimed. "I have way too much money in this place."

 _I sure hope so._ I thought with a small sigh. I didn't know if I could take anymore parties with nothing but drugs and sex.

"Say, where is the food that you promised, Stark?" Thor asked across the table.

"Oh," He got up and headed towards the kitchen. "I almost forgot about that."

"So, what's the thing you look forward most to?" Hawkeye asked with a smile.

"I don't really know yet," I said with a shrug. "Vision took me on a small tour before coming back up here, but there's still so much to explore around here and, now that literally one of the greatest minds today is my new father, I kinda hope to get into a lab and get into some _actual_ mechanics and leave behind the whole makeshift radio-hacking systems of the orphanage. But in all honesty…" I sighed solemnly as I looked down at my can of pop. "A real family who actually cares about me…" There was a heavy pause as I played with the can's tab then glanced up at everybody else. It was honestly the only thing I really wanted deep down, it was something that I guess I never really knew—aside from what the kids had shown me at the orphanage, which was more of a social popularity than anything else. I wanted legitimate love.

"Stacy," Black Widow leaned across Thor and Dr. Banner, placed a hand on my knee, and looked me in the eyes. "You don't have to worry about a lack of love here, if anything," She chuckled and glanced around at everybody in the room. "You're gonna get a little too much and get spoiled by us."

"Really?" I asked. "You'd do that for me?"

"Oh yes," Thor boomed as he roughly wrapped an arm around my shoulder and pulled me into his side. "You shall be treated as Asgardian royalty here—"

"You can be the one to spoil her with all the Asgardian riches and so on," The doctor chuckled. "Not all of us here are gods and filthy rich. But we will treat you in our own ways." He smiled at me.

"Thanks, Dr. Banner." I blushed.

"Oh, no," He waved his hand. "Call me Bruce, there's no need for formalities here. We're a family, not just professional friends, if you'd like to call it that."

"O-okay." I said timidly and looked at the smiling circle.

"Hey, call me Uncle Clint." Hawkeye, or rather, Clint said as he leaned forward and pulled a bottle of beer out of an ice bucket and raised it to me before he opened it.

"Yeah, we're all your aunt and uncles in a sense," Cap said—who was actually Uncle Steve now—with a smile.

 _Cool._ I thought with a nod and looked at everybody again with a small grin. _So now I have an Uncle Bruce, Uncle Steve, Uncle Thor, Uncle Vision, Uncle Clint, and an Aunt… What's her actual name?_

"Uh," I cleared my throat and looked past Thor and Bruce. "I-I never really got your name. It's not exactly as advertised like everybody else's."

"Oh, I guess not," She shrugged. "My full name is Natasha Romanoff."

 _And an Aunt Natasha._ I smiled, now contented with my new family. Hell, I was more than contented, _my new family was the Avengers._

"Uncles Steve, Bruce, Clint, Thor, and Vision and Aunt Natasha," I smiled. "I like it."

"Actually," Tony started as he walked into the ring of couches with a large tray of finger foods of all sorts and placed it on the table. "Vision would be more of a brother than an uncle to you, technically speaking."

"How?" I asked, slightly confused.

"He was kind of created by both the wonderful Dr. Banner and I," He held out a hand of gratitude towards Bruce as he took his seat next to Pepper. "So it'd probably be more of a brotherly relationship if you want to go off of a who-created-who thing."

Here we go again, another uncomfortable situation concerning the creation of an actual being with emotions which could be _hurt_ like any other person's, now, whether that actually registered in Tony's mind as a potentially sensitive subject was beyond me. But he did have a point, _he_ did have a hand in Vision's "birth"—which was probably the preferred term to the red android—so that did put him in a brotherly position, but it also put him in a cousinship as well because Bruce was also a co-creator… So Vision was honestly in an even more awkward position than what was probably initially intended. I glanced at Vision who looked a little less comfortable than before with pressed lips and the avoidance of eye contact with anybody in the room.

"Um, Tony," Pepper said quietly and gently placed a hand on his thigh. "Remember what we talked about." He then gave her a sideways glance, cleared his throat, and shifted uneasily in his seat.

"So, there's the food," Tony said hastily. "What'd I miss?"

After everybody went home from the party with hugs and congratulations all around, I found myself sitting in my new room in a large bean bag and watching the Big Apple's night sky. This beat the view from the orphanage's roof—I could see everything out to the glittering harbor with Lady Liberty in the distance. It still felt like I was in a dream and that I'd wake up in my bed at the orphanage at any moment and yearn even more for the pent house I was in. I was living the fantasy that I'd always dreamed of but knew that I would never reach, but there I was. I heard a knock on the doorframe, gently pulling me from my thoughts; I looked over my shoulder and saw Tony standing in the door.

"Hey," He said softly. "Can I come in?"

"Yeah." I said with a tired sigh as I pushed myself up scooted over in the bean bag and watched him walk over and sit in the bag next to me.

"It's a beautiful night," He said as he wrapped an arm behind my shoulders as he looked out the window. "Did you have a view like this from the orphanage?"

"Nothing as spectacular as this, but I had a pretty good one of the tower from the roof. It was I looked at the most. I used to watch the sunset reflect off the windows, it glowed like gold in that light and then I would watch it until that glow turn into a different color as the lights turned on, making it a beacon in the night. I remember on cloudy nights, its light would be so bright that it'd reflect off the clouds and illuminate the city with a soft, blue glow that always seemed to help me relax." I explained as I remembered the countless nights I spent on that orphanage's roof, the only place where I could actually get some alone time away from all of the other children in that crowded building. "And my heart would always skip a beat when I would see you fly in or out, I would gape in wonder as your blue light flew over my head. I had daydreams about this place, I guess would could call this a dream come true." I said with a grin; he sighed as I felt his fingers begin to lightly drum on the bag behind my shoulder. "You don't know how much of an influence you have on this world outside of the whole Avengers thing, do you?" I asked solemnly as I looked up at him.

"No," He dragged his hand over his mouth making eye contact. "I've never really interacted with… Someone who actually looks at me and sees role model… It's usually the other way around."

"Well, you have to _live_ with one now." I chuckled as that word hung in my mind for a moment. Live. I can live now. I can actually _live_ a life that I can be happy in and be myself and not discriminated by the kids in the regular school system or the college kids who gave me mean and envious looks from across the lecture hall. One where I can be me—Stacy. Stacy… Stark…

"I guess so." Tony said with a smiling shrug as a silence gently settled on the room.

"Thank you," I said quietly after a few moments, making him turn to look at me. "For choosing me." He inhaled like he was about to say something then stopped. "I-I never got to say thank you earlier today because of everything that you had planned for me and so on, but I really am grateful for what you did for me today."

"You're welcome," He said as he placed his hand on my shoulder and gently squeezed it. "I wanted to give someone something that _I_ never really had growing up."

"Huh? But you _had_ a father. Howard Stark didn't abandon or abuse you like some of the kids I know." I said in confusion.

"You're right, but he was never around to do _dad_ things—he was always on business trips, doing something with the company, or in his shop. He'd shoo me away when I wanted to play with him because he was "busy with something" or "too tired" to play. Mother was a little better with family time, but she had her own things that she attended to, so I had several nannies throughout my childhood to take care of me. I never really had the chance to bond with my parents," He pulled me in closer to his side with a warm smile. "And I want to give that opportunity to you."

"But why now? Why adopt?"

"I had entertained the thought of actually having a family for a while now and, to be honest, having a little toddler running around a building with several _dozen_ stories along with a full armory of highly sensitive weapons and a lab with _incredibly_ expensive instruments isn't a very good idea. So having a kid that was a little older, who could take care of themselves, and was potty trained, seemed to be the more logical route and _then_ finding someone who knows a little more than the average teen," He gently tapped on my forehead, which made me giggle. "Was a beautiful treasure I couldn't resist." I felt my face turn red and I looked up at him as he whispered "You are a Stark now."

"Tony—" I started before he cut me off with a raised finger.

"Don't call me that, I am your father and that is how you shall address me." I could hear the playful sarcasm in his voice even though it was hard to read his tone. "Call me Dad."


End file.
